News Section

Minister Doherty Visits Tullamore

‘If Co. Offaly is home to
about 1,000 Travellers why are there only 3 halting sites for the whole county?’ asked Minister Regina Doherty on a recent visit to Tullamore. The Minister for Employment Affairs & Social Protection Regina Doherty visited Offaly Traveller Movement last Monday 2nd of January 2018
and was appalled to hear that there are a total of 105 people, 46 adults and 59
children living without running water, electricity, toilets, bin collection or
any facilities. Only about 30 families in Co. Offaly live in serviced halting
sites.

Staff from Offaly Traveller Movement welcomed the Minister and told her
that this was an important and meaningful visit for them. Ms Doherty listened
as staff discussed some of the key concerns for Travellers including: youth,
education, unemployment, career progression for Travellers in jobs, discrimination
and poor health and life expectancy of Travellers.

Minister Doherty’s visit was much understated. She wanted an opportunity to go out quietly and
visit Traveller families in their own space and see first-hand what the
conditions were like on the ground. She spoke with women and children living in
the unofficial site, Kilcruttin, Tullamore and met some of the beautiful
children who are now growing up in very challenging circumstances. One mother who has 6 children with another one
on the way told Minister Doherty that she is on the L. A. housing waiting list
for 6 years now.

Minister Doherty was welcomed into the home of another family who have
lived on this site for over 21 years. She learned of the heart breaking
experience and difficulty of taking care of sick and elderly people after they
are discharged from hospital and when there are brought home to live in a
trailer with no water or no services.
Speaking about her deceased mother one Traveller girl told the Minister
‘They gave her a nebuliser but we had no real way of using it as we have no
electricity and couldn’t keep it turned on for long’.

Ms. Doherty then went next door to the official serviced halting site in
Tullamore where there are 16 families living.
She visited the onsite brightly coloured crèche and got an opportunity
to speak with the play school leader who told the Minister that she is
expecting a waiting list for the facility in September. Minister Doherty also learned that many of
the official site residents have extended families who have nowhere to stay.
The bays on the official site were built over 25 years but there was no
succession planning and no provision for halting sites for families as they grow
up and go on to have children of their own.

On her way back to Dublin the Minister stopped off and welcomed an
opportunity to talk to the families who are living on the road side without
services near the bypass in Tullamore. One woman told the Minister that her
family had been moved on by the authorities 6 times during the last month and that
this results in extreme stress and hardship including difficultly getting kids
to school and keeping health appointments.

A member of staff at Offaly Traveller Movement said it was ‘just brilliant to have Regina Doherty
visit, she was a breath of fresh air, she sat down on the grass to talk to the
Traveller children which is a great indication that she was genuinely interested
in what Travellers on the ground have to say’. During her visit Minister Doherty was very
empathetic, she expressed grave concern and was very aware of the basic human rights
issues at the heart of these families living arrangements. She requested follow
on support documentation and staff at OTM invited the Minister to return to
Offaly Traveller Movement anytime.

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